KULOB, February 14, Asia-Plus - Kulobgaz, local natural-gas distributor, has limited supplies to the public due to decline in production of natural gas at the gas fields in Vose and Baljuvon districts. 

The Khoja Sartez gas-filed in Vose has reduced production of natural to 4,000 cubic meters per day and the gas field in Baljuvon has reduced gas production to 2,000-2,500 cubic meters per day.  

The natural-gas deliveries issue was one of major topics of a February 13 meeting of the republican commission for improvement of the city of Kulob presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Asadullo Ghulomov. 

The deputy prime minister charged the country’s agency for development of oil-and-gas fields to work out proposals on increasing production of gas at the Khoja Sartez deposit and submit them for consideration to the government within a week.  

According to expert estimates, the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000 billion tons of reference fuel.  At the same time, production work at oil and gas fields require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 kilometers. Therefore experts question the profitability of such deposits.